1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and, in particular, to passenger cabins in aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for indicating a seat in the passenger cabin of an aircraft.
2. Background
The passenger cabin of an aircraft has seats arranged in rows. These rows extend from one side of the aircraft to the other side. Additionally, one or more aisles also may extend along the length of the aircraft.
Passengers are assigned seats. During the flight of an aircraft, a passenger may leave a seat for various reasons. For example, a passenger may leave a seat to walk over and talk to a passenger in another seat. In other instances, a passenger may leave their seat to visit a lavatory. In other cases, a passenger may need to walk along aisles to stretch during a long flight.
When a passenger leaves a seat and returns to the seat, locating the seats may be more difficult than desired. If a passenger returns to an incorrect seat, sitting in an incorrect seat may be awkward if another passenger returns to the seat. Additionally, the embarrassment of appearing to be lost also may occur when seats are difficult to find and may be embarrassing for the passenger.
For example, a passenger may look at the row numbers. However, sometimes passengers do not remember the row numbers after being seated. Further, low lighting environments may be present during some portions of the flight. This low lighting environment may make it even more difficult to read labels for row numbers to find the correct seat.
In another example, a passenger may use landmarks to locate a seat. These landmarks may include, for example, the faces or other features of other passengers that are in their seats. This process, however, may be less useful, when the passenger sees the back of the heads of the passengers when returning to a seat.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.